Akhilesh says women's safety in UP pathetic; govt hits back with numbers

Describing reports of rapes and atrocities from across Uttar Pradesh as "heart-wrenching", Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday said this is the "worst period" for women's security.

His tweet was soon countered by another from the BJP government, which claimed that the period when Yadav himself was the chief minister was worse.

"The way in which news of rapes, atrocities and murders of sisters and daughters of the state is coming is heart- wrenching, the former UP chief minister tweeted in Hindi.

From the point of view of security, this is the worst period ever for the state's girls and women. Highly condemnable, Yadav added. He did not specify any particular case of rape.

Yadav's allegations were rejected by Shalabh Mani Tripathi, who is adviser to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

Tripathi tweeted that the data on crime in the state answered the allegations

"In your government, 14,917 incidents of murder, rape and dacoity were registered just in 2016, when reports of many incidents were not registered. Today crime is reducing when cases are also being registered online, criminals are being killed and sent to jail. Uneasiness is obvious," he said.

From January 1 to December 31 in 2016, there were 4,679 incidents of murder, 3,481 of rape, 263 of dacoity and 4,118 of looting, according to the figures tweeted by the CM's aide.

In contrast, during Adityanath's term there were 3,294 incidents of murder, 2,553 of rape, 91 of dacoity and 1,982 of looting between January 1 and November 15 in 2019.